1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording and/or reproducing apparatus that performs recording and/or reproducing by placing a recording medium tape around a rotary drum having a head.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many rotary-head magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatuses, such as video tape recorders (VTRs), employ an M-loading mechanism in which the path of a magnetic tape becomes substantially the shape of a letter "M" when the magnetic tape is drawn out of a tape cassette and placed on the rotary drum.
Such an M-loading type recorder applies a suitable amount of back torque to both the supply-side and take-up-side reels when drawing the tape from both the reels during the loading operation, in order to substantially prevent the tape from being damaged by a flange portion of a post and/or a lead portion of the rotary drum.
When winding the tape into the cassette during the unloading operation, the recorder brakes one of the reels and uses the other reel to wind the tape, in order to substantially prevent the tape from shifting in position even after the loading and unloading operations have been repeated. The winding torque for the reel must be as small as possible in order to protect the tape from being damaged as described above.
However, because the above-described conventional recorder applies a small amount of winding torque to only one of the reels to wind the tape into the cassette during the unloading operation, the recorder is subject to problems as follows. If the reel used for winding the tape has a large tape roll, that is, a tape roll having a large diameter, such a small winding torque is likely to fail to rotate the reel quickly when the unloading operation is started, that is, when the tape drawing posts start shifting. If the rotation of the reel to wind the tape is delayed or slowed in such an occasion, the tape slackens and falls off from the posts and, therefore, may be damaged.